Semiconductor wafers are generally prepared from a single crystal ingot (e.g., a silicon ingot) which is then sliced into individual wafers. One type of wafer is a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) wafer. An SOI wafer includes a thin layer of silicon atop an insulating layer (i.e., an oxide layer) which is in turn disposed on a silicon substrate. The SOI wafer is formed by bonding a pair of wafers together and later removing a portion of one of the wafers in a cleaving operation.
An outer (i.e., cleaved) surface of the SOI wafer is often contaminated by contact with or exposure to a variety of materials after removal from a chamber in which the SOI wafer is formed. Once contaminated, cleaning the cleaved surface of the SOI wafer is difficult, time-consuming, costly, and often times not entirely successful. Accordingly, there remains an unfulfilled need for a process that protects the cleaved surface of the SOI wafer from contamination.